Como me ensina um amigo de Caminho do Sertão, o Gabão, eu acho que é a literatura enquanto mediação. No limite, essas pessoas não se reuniriam para andar até um buriti ou uma vereda no noroeste de Minas. Então a literatura taí, a arte nos movimentos, mediando essa nossa conversa, por exemplo”.

On one occasion, many years ago, I was sitting on my front step when my neighbor came out of the house next door carrying her small child, whom she placed in her automobile. She turned away from him for a moment, and as she started to close the car door, I saw that the child had put his hand where it would be crushed when the door was closed. I shouted to the woman to stop. She halted in mid-motion, and when she realized what she had almost done, an amazing thing happened: she began laughing, then broke into tears and began hitting the child. It was the most intense and dramatic display of conflicting emotions I have ever beheld. My attitude toward the subjects of this study accommodates stresses similar to those I witnessed in that mother.